Tag: gifts

Have a Look at Wendy Duo

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duo ball Last week in my post about Hatti the new knitting concept from Peter Pan, I mentioned that Wendy had an adult version which I was knitting up. The Yarn is available in 5 shades each with a co-ordinating pompom and is made up of 78% Acrylic, 12% Mohair &10% Polyester. Each 100g ball has approximately 200m/218yds of lightweight yarn and costs €9.95

Duo palette

There’s a pattern for the hat and a matching scarf on the reverse of the ball band the hat is lovely and can be worn as a slouchy hat or more like a beanie with a fold over band.

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Having seen the scarf though I think it looked a bit mean, so I experimented a bit and decided a neck warmer made the best use of the yarn.

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If you’ve bought a ball of Duo and you fancy knitting up the neck warmer here’s the instructions.

Be sure to make your hat first as per the instructions on the ball band, you’ll find it much easier to use a different yarn to sew up the hat and the neck warmer.

With the remaining yarn and 7mm needles cast on 52 stitches loosely and knit in 2×2 rib (Knit 2, Purl 2) until your work measures approximately 20″/50cm.  Cast off stitches loosely and sew cast on edge to cast off edge using a different yarn.  Sew in ends.

I used 8mm needles to cast on and cast off as it’s important to keep your stitches nice and loose for seaming.

Happy Knitting!

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Peter Pan Hatti

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Peter Pan have embraced the idea of ‘quick knits’ with their latest woolly release Hatti.  (technically there is no wool, but you know what I mean)

Hatti is aimed at kids although the knitted hat fits me.  Each ball comes with a free knit and crochet pattern on the ball band and one ball makes one hat complete with colour coordinating pompom for the top!

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It’s made from 80% Acrylic / 20% Polyester and there’s aapproximately  95m / 104 yds in each 50g ball.  The knitted hat uses 5mm needles and I had it made within a couple of hours.  It’s a lovely simple pattern just 2×2 rib with no shaping.

Hatti is available in 4 shades and is €7.15 per ball.

hatti

There’s another similar yarn and pompom knit called Duo which I’m knitting up at the moment.  I’ll post about it as soon as I’m done.

Happy Knitting!

Notes From Week Ending 25th January 2014

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Wow!  January will be over in a few days, how did that happen?  I need to catch up quickly, does anyone have a magic ‘get everything done’ potion I could buy?

Rushing quickly on.

There were several deliveries last week most of which was restock although there were a few new goodies.  Unfortunately, in my haste to unpack them I forgot to take photos of most of them although I did manage a quick snap of the new Candyfloss yarn from Robin.

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Sadly, there’s one shade missing, if memory serves me correctly it’s a bright pink mix.  Candyfloss is being sold as a super chunky with a recommended needle size of 10mm’s but it’s most definitely not.  You could probably use up to an 8mm for scarves and neck warmers but for garments and hats I’d treat it as a standard chunky yarn and use 6.5mm needles.   I hope to get a sample of the yarn knitted up for the shop so you can see what it’s like as there are no designs to go with the yarn.

The bright colours make it an obvious choice for children and it’s 100% acrylic so it’s easily washable.  The 200g ball has approximately 280 metres/306 yards and costs €6.95.

Included in this delivery there was also 4 shades of  the mohair yarn ‘Air’ from Wendy which is made up of 70% Kid Mohair, 30% Nylon  and knits to a tension of 18-24sts x 23-34 rows depending on your chosen pattern.  The 25g ball has approxamitley 200m in it and it’s €7.25 a ball.
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It would be an ideal yarn to use for my Easy Lace Scarf 

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I’ve already started to knit a little communion bolero sample for the shop, it only takes 2 balls so I am aiming to have it finished by the end of the week.

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One last thing before I go, with all of the controversy surrounding all things charity at the moment I thought I’d share the receipts and card we received for money collected from the bags of buttons on sale in the shop for St. Vincent de Paul.  As promised the full price of the sale goes to the charity.  (sorry for the bad photo)

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Happy Knitting!

 

 

Age Action ‘Made With Love’ Update

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As promised I wanted to let you all know that  I’ve heard back from Age Action and can fill in some of the gaps now.

The official launch of the campaign on is today at The Lepreachun Museum so Age Action hope to get more media and retail interest after it.

At present they are still working on retail outlets in Dublin, Cork and Galway as well as drumming up support so they can sell on the streets for St. Patrick’s Day.  Daragh the man that replied to my email didn’t give me a closing date so for us in the shop we’ll be sending off ours the in the first week in March.  The last day for leaving your shamrocks in the shop for us to send off is Saturday March 1st. 

 I made a boob in the previous post sorry, the target is 20000 shamrocks not 2000.  They’ll be sold  at €2 each and proceeds after print and postage costs go directly to their services, including Care and Repair, Getting Started and their Information and Advocacy service.

Above is my first shamrock which is in need of blocking.  It measures about 3.5″from the 1st to the 3rd leaf and it’ 2″ tall from the top of the leaf to where the stalk (which is 3″ long) begins.

Those of you that know me know I’m a straight talker, so therefore it seems only fair to tell you they’re a little fiddly to knit.  Having said that though it only took me about 30 minutes from start to finish and it takes the tinniest amount of double knit yarn.

Perhaps, you’ll only manage to get one shamrock knitted but every little helps after all.

Happy Knitting!

 

The Final Count Is In – Didn’t We Do Well?

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My shop looks rather bare now because as you can see from the photograph I gathered all of the blankets for Armenia from their hidey holes in order to pack them up ready for Global Missions Ireland to collect them.

I’m not sure the photograph shows everyone’s efforts off to full effect.  What you cant really tell is exactly how tall each pile is, or that they’re 4 deep.  (Tom Hardy looking on in the top left hand corner can though – Yum)

Global Missions Ireland will hopefully be taking them over to Armenia in the very near future and we’ve been promised photos which I’ll pop up for all to see.

In the mean time after gathering, folding and bagging and most importantly COUNTING, there are ……………. no you’ll have to wait just a little longer…….

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Yes you did read that right, 118 blankets.  Everybody that took part should feel very proud of themselves, we did great.

News about our next collection will be coming very soon, but for now.

Happy Knitting!

How to use Clover Pom-pom Makers

LeftFootDaisy6 Comments

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Being often asked to demonstrate how to use the pom-pom makers from Clover I thought it might be a good idea to pop up a post about them.  Warning though, the post is photo heavy and I’ve tried to cover everything I’ve been asked about them, so apologies beforehand for waffling on a bit.

These clever little gadgets are available in the following sizes with all but the extra large consisting of two makers.

X Small –  20mm & 25mm

Small – 35mm & 45mm

Large – 65mm & 85mm

X Large – 115mm

Clover have also developed heart-shaped pompom makers which I will demonstrate on another post later.

1st Step Open both sides of the maker.

You will notice that it is made up of two separate pieces that slot into each other, this is to allow you to take your completed pompom out.

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2nd Step Begin winding your yarn around one side of the maker

I tend to start from the centre of the semi-circle, holding my yarn against the curve and wrapping my first few turns over the end to secure it.  I’ve had the most success with my pompoms by keeping the yarn fairly taut when covering the arcs.

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Continue to wind the yarn around one side of the maker until it is almost full. Be careful to try and keep it to ensure a more rounded pompom.

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4th Step Break your yarn off, close your first side in and complete the second side of the pompom.

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5th Step Cut a piece of your yarn long enough to tie round your pompom.  Remember to make it long enough as you can use this to sew your pompom on. Then, using sharp scissors and following the groove between either side of the maker, cut around the pompom, making sure you snip each thread completely.

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6th Step Wrap your piece of yarn between either side of the maker and tie in a knot tightly being careful not to break your yarn.  (some wool may not be strong enough to do this, so you can always use a scrap from another kind of yarn)

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7th Step Open both sides of the pompom maker and separate it to reveal your squidgy pompom.  Roll it around in your hands a few times and give it a little trim – don’t cut your ties if you need to sew it on to anything.

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Voilá! Pompom magic.

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Happy Pompoming!

New Year – Time For Change?

LeftFootDaisy4 Comments

Two days in to 2014 already and my brain has been working overtime on things to do in the coming year.  I’m not a New Year Resolutions kinda girl, so whilst I’ve made a mental note to quit the indulgences of the past couple of weeks, get back on my anti-inflammation diet and try to do more exercise in the coming year I’m not going to be too upset if I fall off the wagon, so to speak.

There are however, things I am going to try to alter in the hope that some little changes will allow me a little more time to do some of the more important things like, dare I say it – Exercise more 😦

Top of my list is to get more organised, already I can hear my family groaning.  I do try really hard to set myself deadlines, but it’s sticking to them that’s the problem.  My head gets so full of ideas for the shop, designs, kids crafts, etc that I easily get distracted.  So I’m going to get better at writing things down, that way hopefully, I won’t be constantly running through my ‘list of possibilities’ in my head.

I’m also extending this writing it down thingy to my ongoing projects too, as I’ve been slack with posting them onto Ravelry and have wasted at least a couple of hours mentally running through what I made in 2013.

From what I can remember I made the following, but I know I’ve missed some things.

1 cardigan for me

1 jumper for Dina

2 waistcoats (1 for the shop, 1 for me)

2 pairs of socks and 2 single socks (need to make a 2nd lace one and I’m now half way through the other 2nd sock, see below)

12 hats

8 scarves/cowls

Moody Blanket (must do icord border)

Poncho

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3 – tea cosies

6 Crochet bunting triangles

5 knitted/crochet brooches

Christmas Angel

4 Baby Cardigans

sample squares for the shop

Blanket squares for charity

Innocent Smoothie hats

If I’m honest, it doesn’t seem like a lot of knitting, must try harder.  As a little extra note to self “should also knit from my stash a little more”.

Starting as I mean to go on here’s my last/first project of 2013/2014.  I’m just about to start the heel flap so it should be finished by the weekend.

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I’m also going to start another Il Grande Favorito with some beautiful Sirdar Connemara from my stash.

All sounds very good so far, but I have a small confession ……..

Whilst waiting for the photos for this post to upload I decided to clear up my email inbox a little and now I’ve become distracted by this lovely DIY Fair Isle Hat deigned by Meg Myers for Classic Elite Yarns.

Which yarn would work best now?

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Happy Knitting in 2014

xxx

It’s A Little Nippy – Last Minute Knit

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OK.  So we’ve all seen the ‘super quick knit’ patterns that seem like a good idea until you realise that they’re actually referring to those amongst us that can break all kinds of speed knitting records.

I’m a steady knitter, neither fast nor slow and if we’re being extremely honest, I’m prone to distraction.  However, this little neck warmer did actually take a little over an hour to knit up – PROMISE!

So what are you going to need?

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I’ve used 10mm needles and 2 balls of Rico Fashion Elegance in shade 3.  They’re 5ometres each so you need approx 100metres of super chunky yarn.

Cast on 20sts and knit every row in plain/garter stitch until work measures 56cms/22″.  Cast off loosely

2013-12-23 12.03.08I slipped the first stitch of every row to keep my edges tidier but it’s not necessary.

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Join by sewing your cast on and cast off edges together.

Ta ddah……..

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Of course now my neck’s warm but I can’t see a blooming thing.

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Much better.

I’m going to make a couple for my youngest to wear as he always forgets to put a scarf on and I’m sure my hubby whose a plumber and constantly working outside on dairy farm installations at the moment, might even fancy a couple.

In case your wondering it’s 20cm/8″ deep.

Happy Knitting!

 

 

 

Top Woolly Gifts This Year

LeftFootDaisy2 Comments

As there are only 3 more shopping days for your loved ones to get down to the shop, I thought I’d show you our most popular gift items this year.

In no particular order ……

All things Knitpro Symphonie

knitproThe new Knitpro Karbonz Sets have also been popular.

karbonz-spitzen-setThe extra special Knitpro Box of Joy

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Clover Pompom Maker are a great stocking Filler.

Clover-2-Pom-Pom-makersThe heart shaped ones are a little bit different too.

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The very gorgeous Hedgehog Fibres.

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Scarf Yarns

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Gift Vouchers

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Cushendale Boucle

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Let us interrogate you for a bit about the person, give us a budget and we’ll make up a kit.

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Happy Knitting!

The Knitting Group’s Christmas Outing

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Our Knitting Group Christmas Outing took place on Wednesday night.  The evening was spent indulging in a gorgeous 3 course meal at Rosies/The Pepperstack in Aghada.

The food was lovely, the portions were so big that I’m ashamed to admit I had to leave some.  Being a vegetarian I opted for the Tomato & Coconut soup, Thai Curry and Strawberry Pavlova – yummy!

However, that’s not what you want to hear about is it?

We exchanged our Secret Santa gifts which as always has to be a handmade Christmas Decoration.  You can see our attempts in the pics, the one I made was the Angel and Dina made the Russian Doll.

I’m thinking handmade Christmas Decorations are the way to go for the future, because by the time you get to my age you’re not really in need of anything (other than a Mark II Ford Escort).

Happy Knitting!

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